ETCETERA: Ottumwa painting discovered in the South

Iowa book targets homeless kids

By JUDY KRIEGER, Courier Editor

An Ottumwa painting from years ago has found its way down south.

Kitty Heyrman of Marietta, Ga., told us that she purchased a painting by Newton Roberts at a church auction.

The painting of a seashore has the inscription on a brass plaque: “Painted and presented to the Ottumwa Courier by Newton Roberts in memory of John Huston and Clarence Johnston.”

Heyrman wrote asking for some information. What I could tell her is that Huston was a longtime publisher of the Courier, and Johnston was editor at the Courier at one time. Both men were gone by the time I arrived in 1966.

Initially, Heyrman said that she “felt duped” because the 29-by-38-inch frame was in bad shape.

Then she got on the Internet and found information about Ottumwa artist Newton Roberts who at one time had a studio across the street from the Courier. He died in 1974.

Now that she’s found out some information, she said that, “I’m curious to know more.”

According to an Internet site, Roberts was from Indiana. He graduated from Baker University studied sociology at Columbia University and received a master’s degree from Iowa Wesleyan College. He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1912 and practiced law with his father’s firm.

He also was Wapello County attorney in 1919 and 1923. He was known as one of the county’s most respected lawyers. Taking up painting in 1930, Roberts’ hobby grew to a serious past-time.

In 1932, he attended the first session of the Stone City art colony and exhibited his first significant work, “Self-Portrait,” at a 1932 Iowa Federate Women’s Club competition. In 1937, he completed “Smoke Stacks,” an Ottumwa scene set at the local power plant and drawn on rough cardboard. This painting won honors in the annual, Iowa Federated Women’s Clubs competition and joined a Five State Exhibition at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Neb. He showed his work at the Des Moines Art Center, the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and at the Ottumwa Art Center. Roberts’ paintings also had featured roles in exhibits at the Denver (Colo.) Art Museum, the Nelson Gallery in Kansas City, Kan., and the City Art Museum in St. Louis, Mo. After retiring from his law practice, he developed a personal studio over his home’s garage.



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A new book about homeless youth in Iowa is a real eye-opener.

It includes stories from homeless youth and reasons why they are homeless. It is not an easy book to read.

Iowa residents Danny Heggen, Wesley Norman, Nicole Anderson and Justin Norman spent months of time putting together the book, “From a Growing Community, Iowa’s Homeless Youth.”

The book is a compilation of stories from nine homeless kids from around Iowa. Through their stories, readers are able to get an inside look at how these youth became homeless, what daily struggles they deal with, and what their hopes for the future are.

The 90-page book includes many location-specific photographs and additional illustrations provided to flesh out the stories, many of which were taken at familiar locations around Iowa.

The authors have expanded efforts to raise awareness of this often invisible problem by lecturing at Drake University and other locations around the state, and by distributing copies to out-of-state stores, such as Borders in Nebraska and Illinois.

The issue permeates every community in Iowa, as there were over 10,000 homeless kids in the state last year, but only 735 shelter beds available for them, Norman said.

The stories in the book represent a lot of common experiences kids all over the state are having. The $10 from each book that goes back to Youth & Shelter Services will be routed to the shelters they provide, including one in southeastern Iowa.

The book sells for $20, and over 800 copies have been sold since its June publication.

For more information, visit their web site at www.SowSomethingMeaningful.com; or, the publisher — www.shriekingtree.com.



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Lloyd “Red” Collier brought in a photo of his very tall castor beans. He lives on Rabbit Run Road and said the beans are 9-foot tall. And in case you didn’t know (I didn’t), the beans are poisonous. Which makes them good for sticking down a mole hole, he said.



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It may have been pouring rain on Monday, but my petunias, salvia and geraniums were still blooming. I picked probably the last nasturtium on Friday and the last rose bud then, too. Snow was in the forecast for western Iowa, but I believe my grass is still green under all those leaves from the neighbors’ trees.

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Judy Krieger can be contacted at j.krieger@ottumwacourier.com; or by phone, (641) 683-5365.

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